


The Lady In The Vase

by ThusSpokeRaven



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Lesbian Relationship, F/F, Ghosts, Lesbian Sex, Love Story, One Shot, Other, Possession, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:03:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27426169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThusSpokeRaven/pseuds/ThusSpokeRaven
Summary: And she walked...
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Kudos: 34





	The Lady In The Vase

Jamie, the dark haired former gardener of Bly Manor, was watching her beloved Dani arranging the daisies in the miniature wash tub. Her blonde hair was hanging low as she leaned in to cut the end off of an overlong flower. She grinned. “The containers are getting just bloody ridiculous.”

Dani chuckled as she tucked in a bit of greenery. “Penelope from the hair salon wants us to make up something with her sister’s old baby bath tub.”

Jamie palmed her face and groaned. “Please tell me you didn’t give her some inspiration that is going to just drive me completely nutters.”

The former nanny gave a sheepish grin. “Remember that poodle made out of carnations? I maybe mentioned it and she maybe thought that a baby in the tub was possible.” She pulled the gingham ribbon around the faux wash tub and started arranging the wires in it to make a cheery bow for the display.

“It’s so good that you are so fucking gorgeous and I am so fucking in love,” Jamie said in a dry tone. “When am I agreeing to work on this fucking masterpiece?”

“You got at least a week before she brings the tub around.” Dani moved the tub to the cooler and came back to kiss her lover. “Could be worse. Could have decided to challenge you to grow a baby shaped flower.”

Jamie grinned and wiggled her thumb at Dani. “Might be easier, these don’t get greener than mine.” She wrapped her arms around Dani’s waist and leaned in toward her ear. “I think you owe me a rather special evening love.”

“I think I may find a way to make it a wonderful night love.” She brushed a dark lock back from the former gardener’s face. “I need to rotate some flowers out of the cooler and then I will come up.”

“Lock up and I will see about making something edible.” The dark haired woman turned as she reached the stairs. She saw the blonde leaning in and out of the cooler moving flowers. She counted each day with her wife as a miracle and loved her more with each miracle added to the stack. She wondered how she ended up so lucky. Smiling, Jamie practically ran up the stairs to get ready for Dani’s return to their home above the shop.

Dani hummed as she looked at the handful of flowers she ended up pulling from the cooler. She smiled as she decided to put together a vase for dinner. Taking down a clear vase from the display, Dani went to work. When she and Jamie had started the shop, what she’d known about flowers would not have filled a matchbox, but Dani had come to enjoy the simple challenges of an arrangement. She filled the vase with water and placed it on the counter.

Her eyes met the nonexistent eyes of the faceless woman looking out from the water in the vase. A stab of fear moved through her like a blade. Was this the day that Dani would no longer be able to give Jamie her love and life? Her breathing slowed, even her blinking felt heavy and slow and she found herself in memory.

The lady in the lake was a ghost without memory. Her time was so long gone, her features had faded with her name. She who had been Viola had lived within this Dani for some time now and began to stretch herself. She held her hands up and contemplated them. The clothes, the room around her were familiar and alien as she toted up the knowledge she had acquired during her residence in the mind of the governess. 

Viola walked around the shop for a few minutes to get used to a physical form being at her command again and then the smell of cooking from above raised the specters of old hungers, food, companionship. While she did not remember much of her life from before, Viola remembered how it could be between two people. Dani’s love being in every fiber of her mind body and soul saw to that education. And so she walked.

The gardener smiled as she saw her love appear at the top of the stairs. “We’ll be ready to eat in just a minute. Why don’t you just have a seat love?” She turned back toward the food she was piling on the plates. She would never be a great chef, but was learning to make quite edible grub, thank you very much. 

Viola looked around at the apartment, as brilliant in hues as the old manor was dark in its woods and fixtures. She sat at the table and drank in the other world she had only seen dimly through other eyes, the eyes now sleeping, dreaming in the back of the stolen brain. She wondered if this was the way a newborn felt at the moment it saw its new world. Thoughts crowded but her stomach’s voice cut through with its own demand.

Jamie shook her head. “You know love, you really should have finished your sandwich earlier instead of doing that washtub. I could have finished the work and you get distracted from your sandwiches far too often.” She leaned in from behind the blond and put a plate in front of her. She kissed Dani gently and stood, her hands coming to an all too brief rest on the other woman’s shoulders.

Viola’s eyes closed at the butterfly soft landing of lips against lips, the touch of those hands. Such gentleness was almost completely foreign, but were there other touches in that lost past? She reached and very nearly overreached in trying to raise them from the dead. She came back to open her eyes to the dark haired gardener sitting down across from her.

Jamie gave Dani a quizzical look. “You alright love?”

The former nanny gave a brief nod. “Hungry,” she simply stated and looked down at the food. She ate daintily but hungrily. Her plate and fork scraped together before she slowed down.

Jamie swapped their plates. “Guess you were. Eat your fill.”

When Dani stood and turned without a thought for the plates sitting empty, Jamie was concerned. She joined the governess standing in the middle of their apartment. “Penny for ‘em,” she said in as light a tone as she could manage.

When the blond turned to face her, Jamie frowned. Dani was looking at her with big question marks in her eyes. 

Viola still felt hunger. She remembered the brush of the brunette’s lips on hers. She surged forward in a kiss that began almost clumsy, but soon caught fire between her and Jamie. Her hands curled into Jamie’s shirt to keep her in place, though the former gardener had no intention of going anywhere.

Jamie was still concerned, but wondered if maybe everything hadn’t just come down to a super powerful craving. She was good to go with it. Her fingers nimbly took care of the buttons on their clothing and pulled apart just long enough to pull away cloth between them. “Slow down love. I got you,” she whispered, kissing Dani’s throat from ear to the place where her pulse pounded. 

Viola’s head fell back as hands drifted over her body, fingers pinching in some places and then soothing those spots. She allowed Jamie to guide her back and back until she fell into bed. Her eyes flew open in surprise. They closed again as the gardener kissed down her body. Viola felt the empty places in her filling, even as warm heat spilled from between her legs. 

Jamie smiled as she watched Dani respond to her touches. Every time was like new even after all this time. The taste of her love was rich on her tongue and flowing over her fingers as she made love to Dani once again. Dani cried out, her muscles clinging to the fingers deep in her as Jamie raised herself to kiss the governess. She smiled as she guided Dani down from the heights. “I love you Dani,” she whispered before laying beside the blond, a hard couple days driving her to sleep moments after her head hit the pillow.

Viola’s eyes were open and she looked at the gardener. She sat up. Her hand rested at the base of the brunette’s throat. She should die for loving another. Viola shook her head. The whole thing was so tangled and her head was beginning to hurt so she stood pulling on a shirt. She stood in the dark confused. And so she walked. And soon she went again to that quiet rest.

Dani found herself in the living room, waking from a dream. Her eyes closed as she realized she smelled of lovemaking and her muscles ached in that special way and she had no idea when it had happened. She wondered if her mental tenant had walked around a bit and perhaps done more. The governess checked on the love of her life and found her sleeping with a smile on her face. Jamie would be so torn and pain filled to know she had made love with the Other. Dani would never tell her. She prayed that it would always be that innocent.

She knew it would not always be that way. The creature within her with the faded soul would one day awaken, and she would walk, and she would kill anyone in her way. Dani leaned against the door frame weak with the knowledge of what she must do when the Lady came again in her faceless rage. She moved to the bed and held her love and wept against the day when the Lady would walk again.


End file.
